League of Legends: Who will succeed TSM Bjergsen?

Sword

Now for the less likely candidates, the first of which is TSM Sword. Rico “Sword” Chen is the substitute mid laner for TSM Academy, playing under Ablazeolive. He is part of a trio of junior players that TSM signed as trainees to play under the Academy team, the other two players being Johnsun and Sarcasm.

Sword has minimal competitive experience. According to Leaguepedia, he has only played one “competitive” tournament, that being the Tyler1 Championship Series. He is only 16 years old and he is already 1000+ LP on the NA Challenger Ladder, so it is clear to see this guy is oozing with potential, but I don’t think he is ready for such an astounding task as taking the LCS starting spot. I do think he will take the academy spot once Ablazeolive either gets called up for LCS or parts ways with TSM.

Jiizuke

Another way TSM could dip into the EU mid pool is by picking up Vitality mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” Di Mauro. The “Italian Stallion”could be just what TSM needs, employing an aggressive hyper-carry play style to bring his team to success… or failure. Could Jiizuke be the next player to don the black and white?

Although Jiizuke has only been playing professionally for two years, he has plenty of experience. He has led Vitality to a 3rd and 4th place finish in EU LCS, and a 5th/6th finish in LEC Spring Split. However, he did something Bjergsen did not do last year. Jiizuke went to the World Championships in Korea, where Vitality were drawn into the ‘group of death’ with 2018 MSI Champions Royal Never Give Up, semi-finalists Cloud9 and eventual disappointments Gen.G.

Could this experience qualify him to take over from Bjergsen? Could Jiizuke be enticed to leave Europe when his contract expires? Could Bjergsen go the other way and join Vitality?! All of this remains to be seen this coming off-season.